l^orlit  ^eace  Jfounbation 

J^ampJlet  Series; 


THE 

TRUTH  ABOUT  JAPAN 


BY 

JOHN  H.  Deforest 


Published  Quarterly  by  the 

WORLD  PEACE  FOUNDATION 

29A  BEACON  STREET,  BOSTON 


April,  1912,  No.  5,  Part  II 

Eotered  as  second-class  matter  April  i8,  igii,  at  the  post  office  at  Boston,  Mass., 
under  the  Act  of  July  i6,  i8g4 


WORLD  PEACE  FOUNDATION 

(Formerly  the  International  School  of  Peace) 

PAMPHLET  SERIES 

April,  igii 

No.  1.  Part  I. 

THE  RESULTS  OF  THE  Twd  HAGUE  CONFERENCES 
AND  THE  DEMANDS  UPON  THE  THIRD  CONFER- 
ENCE. By  Edwin  D.  Mead 

Part  II. 

SIR  EDWARD  GREY  ON  UNION  FOR  WORLD  PEACE 
Speech  in  House  of  Commons,  March  13,  igii 

Part  III. 

THE  WORLD  PEACE  FOUNDATION.  By  Edwin  Ginn 

Part  IV. 

THE  INTERNATIONAL  DUTY  OF  THE  UNITED 
STATES  AND  GREAT  BRITAIN.  By  Edwin  D.  Mead 

Jtily,  igil 

No.  2.  Part  I. 

LIST  OF  ARBITRATION  TREATIES 

Compiled  by  Denys  P.  Myers 

Part  II. 

SOME  SUPPOSED  JUST  CAUSES  OF  WAR 

By  Hon.  Jackson  H.  Ralston 

Part  III. 

SYNDICATES  FOR  WAR 

London  Correspondence  of  the  New  York  Evening  Post 

October,  igii 

No.  3.  Part  I. 

WHY  THE  ARBITRATION  TREATIES  SHOULD  STAND 
Prepared  by  Denys  P.  Myers 

Part  II. 

WAR  NOT  INEVITABLE.  By  Hon.  John  W.  Foster 

Part  III. 

PARLIAMENTARY  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  INTER- 
PARLIAMENTARY UNION.  By  Dr.  Christian  L.  Lange 

Part  IV. 

CHAMBERS  OF  COMMERCE  FOR  ARBITRATION 

Part  V. 

THE  MISSION  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  THE 
CAUSE  OF  PEACE.  By  Hon.  David  J.  Brewer 

January,  igiz 

No.  4.  Part  I. 

CONCERNING  SEA  POWER.  By  David  Starr  Jordan 

Part  II. 

HEROES  OF  PEACE.  By  Edwin  D.  Mead 

Part  III. 

INTERNATIONAL  GOOD  WILL  AS  A SUBSTITUTE 

FOR  ARMIES  AND  NAV'IES.  By  William  C.  Gannett 

April,  igi2 

No.  5.  Part  I. 

THE  DRAIN  OF  ARMAMENTS.  By  Arthur  W.  Allen 

Part  II. 

THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  JAPAN.  By  John  H.  De  Forest 

Part  III. 

THE  COSMIC  ROOTS  OF  LOVE.  By  Henry  M.  Simmons 

Without  Serial  Number 

THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  PEACE  MOVEMENT.  By  Edwin  D.  Mead 

EDUCATIONAL  ORGANIZATIONS  PROMOTING  INTERNATIONAL 
FRIENDSHIP.  By  Lucia  Ames  Mead 

THE  WASTE  OF  MILITARISM 

From  the  Report  of  the  Massachusetts  Coraraissioa  on  the  Cost  of  Living 

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AND  PEACE.  Report  adopted  by  tbe  National  Grange,  igog 

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THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  JAPAN. 


By  Dr.  John  H.  DeForest 

The  annual  consideration  of  the  naval  appropria- 
tions by  Congress  is  almost  invariably  accompanied 
by  some  big  or  little  war-scare,  punctually  provided  for 
the  purpose  of  creating  the  atmosphere  favorable  for 
the  requisite  lavishness  by  the  adepts  in  the  manu- 
facture of  the  requisite  sentiment.  The  clear  logic  of  the 
situation  prescribes  of  course  the  steady  decrease  of 
the  machinery  for  the  settlement  of  international  dis- 
putes by  fighting,  corresponding  to  the  steady  and  now 
so  great  increase  of  the  machinery  for  their  settlement 
by  arbitration  and  the  international  tribunals ; yet  we 
see  the  strange  and  mournful  paradox  of  a constant 
demand  by  a certain  set  of  men  for  increase  where  mani- 
festly, unless  governments  are  to  be  accounted  insincere, 
there  should  be  constant  and  large  decrease.  There  is 
no  “scare”  which  is  worked  harder  or  more  regularly 
than  the  Japanese  scare;  and  there  is  none  which,  on  the 
whole,  has  been  so  easy  and  so  influential,  although 
there  is  really  none  which  is  so  silly  or  so  culpable. 
The  exposure  of  one  of  these  ignorant  (if  the  word  may 
be  charitably  used),  shameful,  and  representative  at- 
tacks upon  Japan  was  so  searching  and  decisive  as  to 
be  historic;  and,  as  it  suffices  for  the  whole  family  of 
scares  of  this  sort,  it  should  never  be  forgotten  when 
the  annual  scare  comes  round  on  the  eve  of  the  appro- 
priations debate.  It  was  in  1908,  by  Dr.  John  H. 
DeForest,  the  eminent  American  scholar  and  mission- 
ary to  Japan,  whose  almost  whole  lifetime  of  service 


4 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  JAPAN 


there  had  given  him  an  vmderstanding  of  American  and 
Japanese  relations  completer  than  that  possessed  by 
almost  any  other  living  man,  and  whose  subsequent 
death  has  been  a distinct  international  loss.  It  is  to 
be  hoped  that  readers  of  this  pamphlet  may  consult 
other  of  the  valuable  writings  of  Dr.  DeForest  in  this 
field,  like  his  paper  on  “American  Ignorance  of  Oriental 
Languages,”  published  by  the  Association  for  Inter- 
national Conciliation.  The  paper  here  reprinted  is  a 
letter  written  by  Dr.  DeForest  for  the  Hartford  (Conn.) 
Courant. 

Some  time  in  January,  1908,  Captain  R.  P.  Hobson  deliv- 
ered in  Hartford  one  of  the  addresses  by  which  for  years,  all 
over  the  country,  he  has  been  endeavoring  to  stir  up  the 
suspicion  and  animosity  of  our  people  against  Japan,  by 
allegations  that  thousands  of  the  Japanese  are  working  night 
and  day  to  turn  out  arms  and  prepare  otherwise  for  swooping 
down  upon  the  United  States  or  its  possessions  in  the  Pacific. 
The  Japanese  are  taught  by  their  government,  he  said,  to 
hate  Americans,  and  they  are  only  waiting  an  opportunity 
to  declare  war.  This  wild  alarm  he  and  others  hke  him 
are  constantly  sounding  by  way  of  urging  the  nation  into 
the  support  of  their  insane  navy  programme.  It  chanced 
that  in  his  audience  at  Hartford  was  Dr.  DeForest,  who 
had  spent  thirty-three  years  in  Japan,  and  knew  definitely 
how  false  and  wicked  was  Captain  Hobson’s  talk.  He  at 
once  addressed  an  open  letter  to  Captain  Hobson,  which  was 
published  in  the  Hartford  Courant  of  January  13.  The 
Courant  said  editorially  in  printing  it:  “We  had  not  sup>- 
posed  that  thoughtful  people  anywhere  took  Hobson  seri- 
ously. But  it  seems  they  do,  here  and  there.  This  letter 
is  written  by  one  who  knows,  and  therefore  holds  an  advan- 
tage over  the  youthful  swashbuckler  who  breathes  destruc- 
tion to  Japan  at  such  a safe  distance.  The  letter  is  as  con- 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  JAPAN  5 

vincing  as  it  ought  to  be  unnecessary.”  Dr.  DeForest’s 
letter  follows: — 

Happening  to  be  in  Hartford  a few  days  ago,  I went  to 
hear  your  address  under  the  auspices  of  the  Young  Men’s 
Christian  Association  on  “America’s  Mighty  Mission.” 
While  some  of  your  minor  statements  were  correct  enough, 
I find  myself  so  wholly  dissenting  from  your  main  proposi- 
tions that  I wish  to  avail  myself  of  the  freedom  of  the  press, 
in  order  that  as  many  as  possible  of  those  who  heard  you, 
or  have  read  newspaper  reports  of  your  addresses,  may 
have  another  side  of  these  very  serious  problems  to  consider. 
You  said:  “Japan  has  had  the  war  habit  for  more  than 
eight  hundred  years.  It  is  with  her  a question  of  heredity. 
It  is  inevitable  that,  as  the  Japanese  emerge  from  wars  of 
their  own,  they  engage  in  wars  with  other  coimtries.  Japan 
uses  the  science  and  knowledge  of  the  world  chiefly  for 
war.” 

Please  let  me  ask  you.  Captain  Hobson,  where  did  you 
learn  this?  Isn’t  your  history  a little  loose?  I should  sup- 
pose that  a Congressman  would  know  that  for  two  hundred 
and  fifty  years  before  Commodore  Perry’s  visit  there  was 
no  nation  on  earth  that  could  compare  with  Japan  in  the 
peace  habit.  While  Europe  and  America  were  in  the  midst 
of  long  years  of  bitter  wars,  revolutions  and  mutual  slaugh- 
ters, there  was  for  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  neither  inter- 
nal nor  external  disturbance  of  peace  in  the  empire  of  Japan. 

Your  sweeping  judgment  of  the  national  character  is  that 
they  have  the  war  habit.  But  do  you  know  what  they  say 
of  themselves?  As  you  claim  the  right  to  say  what  is  the 
main  characteristic  of  our  nation,  you  surely  will  allow  them 
to  testify  concerning  themselves.  For  ages  it  has  been  the 
traditional  teaching  in  Japan  that  the  cherry  blossom,  which 
fills  valleys  and  plains  with  its  delicate  perfume  and  then 
in  self-sacrifice  gives  itself  to  die,  is  the  symbol  by  which 
they  have  always  interpreted  themselves.  Probably  you 
did  not  know  that,  when  Perry  opened  Japan  to  the 
knowledge  of  Western  history,  one  thing  that  shocked  the 
Japanese  was  the  awfully  bloody  histories  of  the  nations  on 
this  side  of  the  globe.  And  one  of  their  great  moralists, 
Yokoi  Shonan,  expressed  this  wide  feeling  when  he  begged 
his  government  to  send  him  on  a mission  to  the  West,  that 
he  might  plead  with  those  nations  to  put  an  end  to  the  brutal 


6 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  JAPAN 


wars  which  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  peace  had  made 
Japan  profoundly  dislike. 

I take  it  that  you  neither  read  nor  speak  the  Japanese 
language,  and  so  have  only  second-hand  avenues  into  the 
literature  and  history  of  Japan.  So,  in  your  hasty  tour 
through  a section  of  Japan,  you  could  not  have  noticed  that 
at  the  entrance  of  countless  towms  and  villages  a high  flag- 
staff stands,  at  the  base  of  which  is  written,  “Peace  be  to 
this  Village.”  Have  you  ever  compared  the  national  hymn 
of  Japan  with  those  of  the  nations  of  the  West?  Her  hymn 
is  of  very  recent  date,  hardly  thirty  years  old,  and  you  woifld 
expect  to  find  something  of  “the  war  habit”  that  has  grown 
“for  eight  hundred  years”  in  this  hymn.  For  hymns,  to 
be  national,  must  express  the  deepest  and  strongest  senti- 
ment of  the  nation.  Not  a shadow  of  war  here.  We  of  the 
West  have  to  be  careful  how  we  sing  our  national  hymns 
where  representatives  of  different  nations  are  gathered.  But 
Japan’s  national  hymn  is  so  absolutely  without  the  war 
spirit  that  it  can  be  sung  anywhere  in  the  world  without 
giving  the  slightest  offence. 

In  the  course  of  your  address  your  vivid  imagination  led 
you  to  picture  the  millions  of  China,  too,  as  virtually  pos- 
sessed with  this  same  war  habit,  and  you  painted  in  fiery 
colors  those  five  hundred  millions  of  yellow  men,  “where 
countless  soldiers  could  shoot  as  straight  as  we  can,  and 
could  live  on  one-tenth  of  what  we  should  need,”  descending 
on  our  Pacific  coast  with  irresistible  force.  Are  you  not  as 
far  afield  here  as  with  Japan?  I had  the  honor  recently  of 
an  interview  with  the  Hon.  John  W.  Foster,  who  kindly 
presented  me  with  a copy  of  his  “Present  Conditions  in 
China.”  With  his  long  and  honored  diplomatic  service  in 
the  East,  whose  peoples  he  knows  and  whose  trusted  adviser 
he  has  been  for  decades,  he  has  a right  to  say  in  this  pam- 
phlet: “For  many  generations  China  has  been  the  least 
warlike  of  any  of  the  great  nations.  Her  most  venerated 
philosopher  and  statesman,  Confucius,  taught  her  people 
that  nations  as  well  as  individuals  should  settle  their  dif- 
ferences by  appeals  to  right  and  justice.” 

In  view  of  these  facts,  it  seemed  to  me  that  you  had  some- 
how got  the  wrong  perspective,  and  that  you  shotfld  have 
reversed  your  vision,  and  told  your  audience  that  we  Western- 
ers have  the  war  habit  badly,  and  might  well  learn  something 
from  those  oldest  and  most  peaceful  nations  of  the  East. 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  JAPAN 


7 


I was  in  Manchuria  as  a guest  of  the  army  for  six  weeks, 
and  was  given  in  my  passport  the  grade  of  a colonel.  I had 
letters  of  introduction  from  the  premier,  Count  Katsura,  to 
all  the  generals  and  Marshal  Oyama.  The  premier  is  a 
general  of  the  regular  army,  and  he  said  to  me  in  all  solem- 
nity: “I  am  a soldier,  but  I hate  war.  We  tried  every  pos- 
sible w'ay  to  come  to  a settlement  with  Russia  through 
peaceful  means,  and  after  six  months  of  useless  diplomatic 
correspondence  we  simply  had  to  fight  for  our  national  exist- 
ence.” This  is  a true  expression  of  the  heart  of  Japan’s 
generals.  Mr.  Foster  is  right  in  his  estimate  of  the  peaceful 
character  of  the  peoples  of  the  East.  What  he  says  agrees 
with  the  conclusions  I have  reached,  after  thirty- three  years 
of  residence  there. 

Let  me  now  refer  to  the  charge  you  repeatedly  made  that 
Japan  is  tr3dng  to  bring  on  war  with  America  at  the  earliest 
possible  moment,  knowing  that  we  are  unprepared  and  that 
she  could  win  easy  victories,  provided  she  can  get  a pretext 
for  beginning  the  fight.  In  making  this  startling  charge, 
which  is  not  true,  and  is  an  insulting  and  brutal  way  of  at- 
tacking a friendly  nation,  you  seem  to  have  utterly  ignored 
the  repeated  public ' statements  of  your  superiors.  You 
vividly  pictured  our  President  sitting  “in  sackcloth  and 
ashes,”  under  the  browbeating  of  the  oily- worded  Viscount 
Hayashi,  minister  of  foreign  affairs  in  Tokyo.  And  this 
poor  hectored  President  of  ours  was  at  the  same  time  telling 
the  world  in  his  message  to  Congress  about  the  “warm 
friendship  ” maintained  between  Japan  and  the  United  States 
for  so  many  years  “without  a break.”  Another  of  your 
superiors  in  office,  our  Secretary  of  War,  Mr.  Taft,  unquali- 
fiedly stated  in  Tokyo  only  last  October  that  the  two  gov- 
ernments and  the  two  peoples  are  perfectly  secure  in  their 
friendly  relations,  which  no  local  disturbances  can  affect. 
He  says,  with  reference  to  war  talk:  “It  would  be  a crime 
against  modern  civilization  if  Japan  and  America  went  to 
war,  and  it  would  be  at  once  hateful  and  insane.  The  people 
of  both  countries  are  alike  repugnant  to  the  idea,  and  the 
governments  of  both  countries  may  be  trusted  to  be  faithful 
in  this  matter  to  the  people’s  wishes.” 

Another  of  your  superiors  has  a very  different  version 
from  yours  of  our  diplomatic  relations  with  Japan  over  the 
San  Francisco  school  question.  You  say  that  Japan  virtu- 
ally gave  “an  ultimatum”  to  our  government,  and  that  she 


8 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  JAPAN 


insultingly  made  “demands.”  Secretary  Root  said  in  his 
address  before  the  American  Society  of  International  Law: 
“The  government  of  Japan  made  representations  to  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States  that,  inasmuch  as  the  children 
of  residents  who  were  citizens  of  all  other  foreign  countries 
were  freely  admitted  to  the  schools,  the  subjects  of  Japan 
residing  in  the  United  States  were,  by  that  exclusion,  denied 
the  same  privileges,  liberties  and  rights  which  were  accorded 
to  the  citizens  or  subjects  of  the  most  favored  nation.”  Now, 
as  a member  of  Congress,  you  ought  to  know  the  difference 
between  a diplomatic  representation  and  an  ultimatum  or 
a demand.  It  is  the  difference  between  impending  war  or 
peace.  An  ultimatum  is  the  last  diplomatic  word  before 
the  beginning  of  active  war.  Your  superior  has  told  the 
world  that  there  wasn’t  a shadow  of  an  ultimatum.  And 
he  adds,  “It  is  a pleasure  to  be  able  to  say  that  never  for 
a moment  was  there,  as  between  the  government  of  the 
United  States  and  the  government  of  Japan,  the  slightest 
departure  from  perfect  good  temper,  mutual  confidence  and 
kindly  consideration.” 

You  will,  of  course,  allow  that  our  ambassadors  in  Tokyo 
have  at  least  as  good  sources  for  knowing  facts  as  you.  Our 
ambassador,  Luke  Wright,  on  his  return  from  Japan  last 
September,  said  to  Americans  through  the  papers:  “The 
talk  of  war  between  this  country  and  Japan  isn’t  even  re- 
spectable nonsense.  There  is  no  situation  between  Japan 
and  the  United  States  other  than  the  very  pleasant  and 
friendly  relation  which  has  always  existed.  Japan  no  more 
wants  a war  with  us  than  we  want  one  with  her,  and  the 
idea  that  there  is  an  impending  conflict  between  the  two 
countries  is  ridiculous.  Japan  regards  us  as  her  best  friend, 
and  there  is  a perfect  understanding  between  the  two  coun- 
tries.” If  now.  Captain  Hobson,  you  say  that  things  have 
changed  since  Mr.  Wright’s  day,  and  that  we  now  have 
facts  that  throw  light  on  the  Japanese  war  habit,  let  me 
quote  our  new  ambassador  in  Tokyo,  who  asserted  before 
the  Oriental  Association  on  December  ii  that,  “so  far  as 
our  two  countries  are  concerned,  there  is  not  now  one  serious 
question  that  remains  unsettled.” 

These  gentlemen  whom  I have  quoted  are  your  superiors 
in  everything  that  pertains  to  first-hand  information  on 
diplomatic  matters,  and  their  statements  are  unequivocally 
the  opposite  of  yours.  I will  quote  some  others  who  are 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  JAPAN 


9 


also  very  superior  to  you  in  their  knowledge  of  the  people 
of  Japan.  I refer  to  the  missionaries  who  speak  the  Japanese 
language,  live  with  the  people,  have  strong  friendships  among 
the  educated  classes,  read  the  papers,  and  are  agreed  on  this 
one  vital  point, — the  way  the  Japanese  think  about  us.  They 
have  watched  not  without  anxiety  the  irresponsible  jingo 
utterances  of  a section  of  the  American  press  and  their 
slanders  of  Japan.  They  have  openly  sent  their  formal  mes- 
sage to  the  people  of  the  United  States;  and,  in  view  of 
such  utterances  as  you  feel  impelled  to  make,  the  public 
should  have  the  saner  views  of  men  who  have  first-class 
opportunities  for  knowing  what  you  can  get  only  in  less 
direct  ways.  Here  is  their  message: — 

“While  we,  as  missionaries,  have  nothing  to  do  with 
questions  of  national  economics  or  international  politics,  yet 
in  matters  affecting  the  mutual  good-will  of  nations  we,  as 
messengers  of  God’s  universal  Fatherhood  and  man’s  uni- 
versal Brotherhood,  are  pecuHarly  interested;  and,  as 
Americans  now  residing  in  Japan,  we  feel  bound  to  do  all 
that  is  in  our  power  to  remove  misunderstandings  and  sus- 
picions which  are  tending  to  interrupt  the  long-standing 
friendship  between  this  nation  and  our  own.  Hence  we 
wish  to  bear  testimony  to  the  sobriety,  sense  of  interna- 
tional justice,  and  freedom  from  aggressive  designs  exhibited 
by  the  great  majority  of  the  Japanese  people  and  to  their 
faith  in  the  traditional  justice  and  equity  of  the  United 
States.  Moreover,  we  desire  to  place  on  record  our  pro- 
found appreciation  of  the  kind  treatment  which  we  experience 
at  the  hands  of  both  government  and  people;  our  belief 
that  the  alleged  ‘belligerent  attitude’  of  the  Japanese  does 
not  represent  the  real  sentiments  of  the  nation;  and  our 
ardent  hope  that  local  and  spasmodic  misunderstandings 
may  not  be  allowed  to  affect  in  the  shghtest  degree  the 
natural  and  historic  friendship  of  the  two  neighbors  on 
opposite  sides  of  the  Pacific.” 

This  document  is  signed  by  over  a hundred  men,  many 
of  whom  have  lived  in  Japan  over  a quarter  of  a century. 
Every  one  of  these  men  would  repudiate  without  hesitation 
every  one  of  your  assertions  to  which  I have  referred. 

In  thus  replying  to  your  pubhc  statements,  I am  not 
ignorant  that  the  immigration  question  is  a perplexing  and 


lO 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  JAPAN 


also  irritating  one;  and  I happen  to  know  that,  because  it 
is  irritating,  both  governments  have  kept  pen  from  paper. 
Of  course,  I am  not  in  the  secrets  of  the  government,  but, 
as  far  as  I understand  things,  I believe  there  has  been  no 
diplomatic  correspondence  whatever  between  the  two 
governments  imtil  the  very  recent  note  of  Secretary  Root 
to  Viscount  Aoki  concerning  the  immigration  question  and 
the  Japanese  government’s  reply  through  our  Ambassador 
O’Brien.  Heretofore  it  has  been  simply  diplomatic  conver- 
sations. But  meantime  and  repeatedly  both  governments, 
through  their  most  responsible  agents,  have  unwaveringly 
said  to  the  world,  in  the  straightest  possible  use  of  words, 
that  there  is  no  break  in  the  friendly  relations  between  the 
two  governments.  Just  a year  ago  I was  in  our  ambassa- 
dor’s box  at  the  opening  of  the  Japanese  Diet,  and  heard 
Premier  Saionji  say;  “I  have  been  questioned  with  refer- 
ence to  the  San  Francisco  affair  and  asked  what  our  govern- 
ment is  going  to  do  about  it.  To  this  I reply  that  the 
matter  has  not  reached  the  diplomiatic  stage.  It  is  merely 
a local  affair  within  the  jurisdiction  of  a friendly  country, 
and  we  trust  the  government  of  the  United  States  to  do 
the  just  thing.”  A few  weeks  ago  I was  accorded  an  inter- 
view with  Japan’s  ambassador.  Viscount  Aoki.  His  words  to 
me  were;  “War  with  America  is  impossible.  If  immigra- 
tion tends  to  make  an  unfavorable  economic  situation  here 
or  arouses  race  prejudice,  then  we  will  stop  our  laborers  from 
coming  to  this  country.  The  good-will  and  friendship  of 
the  great  republic  is  not  to  be  imperilled  for  the  sake  of  a 
few  immigrants.”  Undoubtedly  Japan  feels  hurt  over  the 
determination  to  exclude  her  laborers,  while  those  of  other 
nations  are  freely  allowed  to  come.  It  is  like  a blow  from 
a friend, — from  one  she  has  always  called  with  profound 
respect  her  “teacher.”  But  again  and  again,  during  the  last 
year’s  misunderstandings,  Japan’s  great  statesmen  and  war- 
riors and  her  great  newspapers  have  said,  with  deep  regard 
and  gratitude  for  what  America  has  done  for  her,  “We  can 
never  fight  the  United  States.”  You  may  be  sure  she  will 
never  raise  a finger  against  us  unless  we  become  so  un- 
righteous as  openly  to  insult  her,  throw  away  her  valuable 
friendship,  and  aggressively  arouse  her  war  feelings. 

I am  impelled  to  say  to  you.  Captain  Hobson,  that  your 
medicine  of  repression,  first  towards  Europe  and  then 
towards  Japan,  seemed  to  me  a reversion  to  barbarism.  Your 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  JAPAN 


II 


address  seems  to  me  wholly  unworthy  of  a Christian  gentle- 
man and  an  elected  representative  of  our  Repubhc.  You 
said  with  violent  gestures  that  the  Japanese  attitude  towards 
us  is  “awful  and  mcked,”  You,  who  evidently  know  noth- 
ing of  their  press,  call  it  “bitter.”  For  the  sake  of  my 
country’s  fair  name,  I want  to  say  publicly  that  your  sweep- 
ing and  baseless  misstatements  show  colossal  ignorance  of 
the  character  of  the  Japanese.  If  our  people  were  not  too 
sensible  to  take  you  seriously,  if  you  could  carry  the  major- 
ity of  our  people  with  you,  your  words  would  surely  imperil 
the  peace  of  the  world,  the  large  part  of  which  you  cruelly 
insulted.  As  a citizen  of  the  United  States,  I protest  against 
your  “awful  and  wicked”  and  “bitter”  accusations  of  a 
great  and  friendly  nation. 

For  the  sake  of  Japan,  whose  people  I respect  and  love, 
and  whose  spirit  I beheve  will  bring  generous  help  to  the 
world  in  the  peaceful  solution  of  the  greatest  of  all  the 
twentieth-century  problems,  the  coming  together  of  the 
East  and  the  West,  I openly  affirm  that  your  statements 
about  the  war  habit  of  the  Japanese,  and  their  war  designs 
on  our  Repubhc,  have  no  better  foundation  than  that 
furnished  by  your  ignorance  of  history  and  of  diplomatic 
usages  between  governments.  And  for  the  sake  of  the  rehg- 
ion  which  I believe  is  the  greatest  force  that  will  bind  the 
race  of  man.  North,  South,  East,  West,  in  one  abiding  broth- 
erhood, I must  protest  against  your  using  Christian  plat- 
forms and  quoting  Christian  Scripture  while  poisoning  the 
minds  of  your  hearers  against  a people  whose  friendship  the 
milhons  of  this  land  prize. 

The  true  feehngs  of  the  people  of  this  country  towards 
Japan  are,  I firmly  believe,  expressed  in  the  resolution  passed 
by  a thousand  representatives  of  our  Congregational  churches 
at  Cleveland  last  October  and  that  at  the  recent  Yotmg 
Men’s  Christian  Association  Convention  in  Washington. 
Said  the  former;  “We  desire  to  assure  Japan  that  the  heart 
of  Christian  America  beats  true  to  the  unbroken  friendslup 
between  the  United  States  and  Japan  for  over  half  a century.” 
Said  the  latter:  “This  Convention  sends  special  greetings 
from  the  North  American  Associations  to  the  associations  of 
our  brotherhood  in  Japan  and  China,  with  strong  reaffirma- 
tions of  the  warm  friendship  existing  between  the  nations  of 
the  North  American  Continent  and  those  two  great  empires 
of  Asia.” 


12 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  JAPAN 


The  interest  stirred  up  in  Hartford  by  Dr.  DeForest’s 
vigorous  protest  was  so  profound  that  a great  meeting  was 
held  in  one  of  the  largest  churches  in  the  city  to  listen  to 
an  address  by  him  on  the  subject  of  our  relations  v/ith 
Japan.  The  mayor  presided,  with  clergymen  representing 
seven  different  churches  seated  about  him  on  the  platform. 
Dr.  DeForest  recounted  the  reasons  why  Japan  was  and 
would  continue  to  be  friendly  with  America  and  why  we 
should  hold  the  same  feeling  towards  Japan,  condemn- 
ing in  no  uncertain  words  those  papers  and  individuals 
who  were  striving  to  break  the  friendship  between  the  two 
nations.  One  cause  for  the  friendship  between  the  two 
nations  was  the  fact  that  this  country  had  sent  to  Japan 
a long  line  of  scholarly  and  sympathetic  representatives. 
Many  Japanese  students  have  come  to  this  country  and 
entered  our  schools,  been  taken  into  our  homes,  and  gone 
back  to  their  native  land  to  hold  many  of  the  important 
positions  in  the  empire.  At  the  close  of  Dr.  DeForest’s 
address  the  following  resolutions,  read  by  President  Mac- 
kenzie, of  the  Hartford  Theological  School,  were  adopted  by 
a unanimous  rising  vote: — • 

“That  we  hereby  express  to  the  Emperor  and  people  of 
Japan  our  profound  respect  for  their  courage,  their  enlight- 
enment, and  their  progress.  We  are  grateful  for  their  appre- 
ciation of  us  as  a people,  and  rejoice  that  they  trust  our 
friendship.  We  in  turn  wish  to  declare  our  confidence  in 
their  abiding  loyalty  to  the  unwritten  alliance  which  has 
bound  the  two  nations  together  for  half  a century  and  to 
reciprocate  Japan’s  expressions  desirous  of  abiding  peace. 

“That  we  earnestly  protest  in  the  strongest  terms  against 
the  wide-spread  and  systematic  efforts  that  have  been  made 
by  some  journals  and  individuals  to  foment  distrust  and 
enmity  between  two  friendly  nations,  and  brand  as  malicious 
and  unwarrantable  all  the  statements  which  have  tended  to 
throw  suspicion  upon  the  integrity  of  the  governments  of 
both  our  own  nation  and  Japan.” 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  JAPAN 


13 


This  vigorous  and  righteous  action  of  the  Hartford 
churches  should  be  emulated  and  followed  in  a thousand 
places  all  over  the  country.  It  impeaches  the  intelligence 
and  the  seriousness  of  our  American  churches  and  Young 
Men’s  Christian  Associations  that  so  many  of  them  have 
been  found  willing  to  give  the  use  of  their  pulpits  and  plat- 
forms to  an  arrant  mischief-maker,  enabling  him  under 
respectable  auspices  to  repeat  widely  his  ignorant  and  incen- 
diary harangues  at  critical  times,  when  soberness,  concili- 
ation, and  truth  are  peculiarly  imperative.  If  there  are 
any  institutions  of  which  we  have  a right  to  expect  and  to 
demand  that  they  should  be  agencies,  not  for  stirring  up 
suspicion,  enmity  and  strife,  but  for  promoting  good  under- 
standing and  good-will  in  the  family  of  nations,  surely  we 
have  a right  to  ask  and  expect  this  from  our  churches  and 
religious  organizations. 


JAPAN  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

President  David  Starr  Jordan  of  Stanford  University  returned  in 
October,  1911,  from  an  extended  visit  to  Japan  in  the  interest  of  inter- 
national fraternity  and  progress,  under  the  auspices  of  the  World  Peace 
Foundation.  He  visited  every  important  center,  gave  addresses  almost 
ever}'  day,  and  was  in  touch  and  often  in  close  conference  with  the  lead- 
ing statesmen  and  scholars  of  Japan.  No  recent  American  visitor  has 
had  better  opportimity  to  measure  the  best  Japanese  public  opinion; 
and  the  following  passage  from  an  interview  published  in  the  Japanese 
papers  as  he  came  away  will  be  read  with  much  interest  in  this  country: 

“In  coming  to  Japan,  I wished  primarily  to  assure  myself  as  to  the 
present  attitude  of  the  people  toward  the  suppression  of  war  among 
civilized  nations.  This  is  the  most  important  moral,  political  or  financial 
movement  of  our  time,  and  I was  sure  that  the  people  of  Japan  could  not 
be  indifferent  to  it.  The  suppression  of  war  and  of  war  debts  must 
come  in  time  as  a matter  of  righteousness  and  justice.  The  strongest 
immediate  force  is  that  of  finance,  as  war  is  the  greatest  foe  of  legiti- 
mate business. 

“No  nation  was  ever  able  to  maintain  at  the  same  time  a great  army, 
a great  navy,  a vigorous  foreign  policy,  a great  debt  and  the  prosperity 
of  the  people.  Two  of  the  five  may  be  held  for  a time,  and  occasionally 


14 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  JAPAN 


three,  never  any  more.  For  the  waste  of  war  preparation  in  time  of 
peace,  from  which  the  whole  world  is  suffering  to-day,  there  is  no  sudden 
remedy.  The  formation  of  closer  relations  among  civilized  nations, 
the  growth  of  enlightened  public  opinion,  the  decision  of  business  men 
that  there  are  better  uses  for  money,  the  growth  of  better  understandings 
by  which  we  shall  recognize  that  the  people  of  other  nations  have  no 
evil  designs  against  us, — all  these  are  essentials  in  the  formation  of 
lasting  and  honorable  peace. 

“The  fact  that  most  nations  are  controlled  in  large  part  by  the  unseen 
empire  of  European  financiers  makes  for  peace,  no  doubt,  but  it  makes 
also  for  bankruptcy.  War  costs  one  hundred  times  what  it  cost  fifty 
years  ago,  and  even  the  shortest  war,  ending  in  victory  or  in  defeat, 
may  mean  years  of  crushing  poverty  for  the  ‘common  people’  of  both 
nations  concerned. 

“I  find  that  all  these  matters  are  realized  in  Japan,  as  they  are  coming 
to  be  realized  all  over  Europe  and  America.  The  currents  of  world  life 
flow  through  Japan,  and  Japan’s  response  to  truth  and  justice  is  not 
unlike  that  of  the  other  great  nations. 

“In  brief,  I do  not  find  in  Japan  any  of  the  spirit  of  war  for  war’s  sake, 
which  has  been  the  bane  of  European  politics,  nor  any  desire,  on  the  part 
of  people  wise  and  well  informed,  for  international  aggression  of  any 
sort.  While  one  may  hear  opinions  of  almost  any  kind  if  he  looks  for 
them,  I find  the  average  public  opinion  in  Japan  on  the  question  of 
friendly  relations  among  nations  quite  as  sane  and  rational  as  in  any 
other  nation  whatever.” 


At  the  dirmer  of  welcome  given  to  Mr.  Hamilton  Holt,  managing  editor 
of  the  Independent  and  one  of  the  directors  of  the  World  Peace  Founda- 
tion, and  Mr.  Lindsey  Russell,  president  of  the  New  York  Japan  So- 
ciety, at  the  Imperial  Hotel,  Tokyo,  September  25, 1911,  Prince  Tokugara, 
President  of  the  Japanese  House  of  Peers,  who  presided,  uttered  the 
following  weighty  words: — 

Gentlemen, — It  is  my  pleasant  duty  to-night  to  propose  the  health 
of  our  guests  from  America,  whom  we  all  honor,  love  and  esteem.  No 
Japanese  can  visit  their  great  country  without  being  overwhelmed 
with  hospitcility  and  all  forms  of  attention  and  courtesy,  and  we  all 
feel  happy  whenever  we  are  given  the  opportunity  to  reciprocate, 
though  the  resources  for  entertainment  are  lamentably  inadequate 
in  this  country.  But  to  the  gentlemen  whom  we  are  so  proud  to  have 
as  our  guests  to-night  we  owe  gratitude  not  only  for  their  hospitality 
to  us  while  in  their  coimtry,  but  for  their  noble  eflorts  in  the  cause  of 
peace  and  amity  between  the  two  great  nations.  Nobody  who  really 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  JAPAN 


15 


knows  the  American  people  can  ever  doubt  that  their  sentiments  are 
thoroughly  friendly  to  us.  As  for  ourselves,  we  all  know  that  we  are 
in  no  less  degree  friendly  to  the  Americans.  As  a matter  of  fact,  the 
relations  between  the  two  nations  have  always  been  extremely  cordial, 
and  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  they  will  always  continue 
friendly.  We  must  not,  however,  forget  that  there  are  people  in  the 
United  States  who  make  it  their  business  to  start  now  and  then  an  anti- 
Japanese  campaign  through  the  press  and  on  the  platform.  These 
people  are  not  necessarily  at  heart  unfriendly  to  us.  Their  object, 
so  I am  informed  by  those  who  ought  to  know,  is  not  to  embroil  the 
two  countries  in  war,  but  to  create  a situation  which  may  promote  the 
furtherance  of  a scheme  of  military  and  naval  increase.  Whatever  may 
be  the  cause,  it  is  a deplorable  fact  that  the  otherwise  perfectly  placid 
waters  of  political  relations  between  the  two  countries  are  periodically 
threatened  by  a mischievous  attempt  at  disturbance.  These  despicable 
attempts  ought  never  to  succeed,  and  I am  sure  that  they  will  never 
succeed.  But  all  the  same  they  constitute  a danger  which  all  lovers  of 
peace  and  good-will  between  the  two  peoples  should  not  ignore,  for 
there  are  ignorant  people  in  all  countries  who  may  easily  be  misled. 
For  this  reason  it  is  important  that  there  should  be  men  in  America, 
men  of  influence  and  power,  who  will  instruct  and  enlighten  their  fellow- 
countrymen  as  to  the  real  state  of  affairs  and  expose  the  hollowness 
of  the  sensational  statements  which  the  agitators  do  not  scruple  to 
spread  broadcast.  There  are,  happily,  no  lack  of  men  of  this  type  in 
America,  and  among  these  noble  workers  for  peace  and  disinterested 
friends  of  Japan  none  are  more  prominent  and  none  have  done  more 
for  the  cause  than  our  guests  of  honor  to-night.” 


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